Syracuse Chancellor Nancy Cantor: Tape Prompted Bernie Fine’s Firing

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — Syracuse Chancellor Nancy Cantor says the school decided to fire associate head basketball coach Bernie Fine upon hearing an audiotape recorded by Bobby Davis, one of three men who have accused Fine of molesting them as minors.

The university fired Fine on Sunday after ESPN broadcast the 2002 audiotape, recorded by Davis, of a conversation between him and a woman ESPN identified as Fine’s wife, Laurie, in which she says she knew “everything that went on.”

Cantor says if the tape had surfaced in 2005, when the university did its own investigation, Fine would have been fired and that the school would have fired him immediately when Davis’ allegations became public Nov. 17 had it known about the tape.

Her comments were in a published response to a USA Today editorial Thursday that calls on Syracuse to release a “full accounting” of what it did and why Fine was kept on the job.